Daniel Radcliffe to Play Freddie Mercury? Update

The Freddie Mercury biopic has finally received a green light, and Daniel Radcliffe is set to play the Queen himself replacing Sacha Baren Cohen who was originally supposed to play the role, but he dropped out in July, according to reports. Frost/Nixon writer, Peter Morgan, penned the script, and surviving Queen members have licensed the songs. Cohen apparently dropped out of the project over alleged creative differences: “Queen’s guitarist Brian May and drummer Roger Taylor were said to be pushing for a film with mainstream appeal, while Cohen wanted a darker tone,” according to a report in Metro.

Update: Daniel Radcliffe shoots down rumors that he will be playing Mercury: “There is no truth to it at all. It’s one of those very, very funny things: it came out of a story in the Daily Star and then you see newspapers like The Guardian using The Star as their source, and it grows and grows [until] it’s ‘Dan Radcliffe is playing Freddie Mercury!’, which I was never going to do. Everyone on the internet who I presume is saying I’m totally wrong for that part is correct. I AM completely wrong for that part!”